Space Dragons Dragon Boat Racing Team: Tempe: A great start for the '09 season

Check out Jimmy's pics here and here! Loads of great shots, including some frame-by-frame racing. Thanks, Jimmy!

Best cheering section around ... thanks, girls!

2009 Tempe Space Dragons bring home a lil' hardware:
500m Mixed Div A 3rd place, 2nd place Masters, 2nd place Open, & 2nd place 1000m Mixed

Our 4th straight Tempe tournament was our most rewarding yet - a testament to our continual growth & maturation as a team & validation for our hard work thus far.

Coach CZ strikes a pose - Photo via azcentral.com

The race organizers did a wonderful job keeping the weekend packed w/racing action, and we took full advantage by participating in more races (18!) than anyone else in attendance, w/ 2 mixed boats for the 500m, 250m, & 1000m races + a Men's Boat + a Women's boat + a Master's boat. All of you did an outstanding job staying strong throughout the hot & dry weekend, which speaks to your fitness, endurance, & focus to see the weekend all the way through. A victory in itself. Great job!

Prepping the always important Team Mascot between races

Some competition highlights (fuel & motivation for the challenging season ahead!):

Both RED (#6 seed) & BLUE (#10 seed) qualified for the top Mixed Division A (reserved for the top 12 of 32). Truly awesome as it reflects depth & growth - and loads of potential. Blue, your performances put you up against some big boys on Sunday, and this is what we want - opportunities to race against the best. Great job, everyone!

Blue takes 1st in their tough first heat (view in HQ!)

RED finishes 3rd place overall (behind mighty San Diego & blazing UCLA) in the 500m mixed division after fighting through the elimination round & edging out the head-turning Manitoba High School (Canada) in the finals

RED crashes the party by finishing strong & winning it's semifinal elimination round against tough competition

Mixed Div A Finals - RED battles tooth and nail against San Diego, UCLA, & Manitoba High School to finish 3rd place overall

After two straight 1st place finishes on Sat, our MEN finish 2nd place overall in the Open Division behind mighty San Diego. Men leave Tempe w/ our redemption - and the 2nd fastest 500m time of the weekend

In the 2nd OPEN heat, our men edge-out San Diego to record Sat's fastest time (~2:05)

Open Finals - MEN fly to a 2nd place finish against top-flight competitors San Diego & LARD

Our Geri-crew MASTERS finish just a few grey hairs (.4 seconds) behind great competitors DragonMax (North Cali) in the Master's Final for the 2nd place overall finish. Click here for DragonMax's footage!

With a very close 4th place seeding after Sat, our LADIES were just edged out from participating in the Women's Final (reserved for the top 3 of 9) & guaranteed hardware. Plenty of motivation for many upcoming Women's races (Alcan, Long Beach, SF). Train hard, ladies!

Despite two great qualifying heats (1st & 2nd place finishes), Women finish 4th time-wise and just out of the Women's final

After a 4th place finish in the 250m sprints, RED closed out the weekend right w/ a thrillingly close 2nd place overall finish behind mighty San Diego in the Guts & Glory 1000m race

Sammi demonstrating the benefit of practicing eyes-closed.

No doubt, bringing home hardware for RED (500m +1000m), our MEN, & our Masters was rewarding. BUT, thanks to all of your efforts - the bigger benefit of the weekend is that we kicked-off the season the right way (and of course had a blast doing it!).

It's a long season ahead of us - the competition is guaranteed to get tougher. We face the challenge of continually improving & being the absolute best we can be each opportunity we get ... we have obvious areas for improvement - & that's a very good thing.

So - GREAT JOB, EVERYONE - this is just the beginning of 2009 - IF we stay together & continue to train hard ... this has the makings of a potential best-ever type season!

Big thank you's to:

The AZDBA & all the volunteers for a fun, efficient, race-filled weekend!
TINA for an AWESOME job as our tourney manager! Too many things to list in detail.
JIMMY for supporting Tina, & making sure we were fed & hydrated throughout
BEST DEAL INSURANCE AGENCY for the wonderful gifts, snacks, & support!
CEEZ for awesome equipment management + helping w/ lunch
All who helped contribute & transport EZ-ups, coolers, water, snacks, etc!
TOM, PHIL, JIMMY, KEVIN, ALL for serving as paparazzi!
EVERYONE for doing all the big & little things to serve our collective group & for simply taking care of one another - that's what makes this team a family!
KURT from Ripple for blessing us with your participation for the 2nd straight year!
BILL, JESSE, and DAN from our friends at LARD for joining us on our Masters Crew!
Steers AJ, JOHN, PEARL, BRIAN, JOE, SAMMI, & yes, EMILY! Great job keeping us safe & straight!
Callers TRAN, DEVANT, EM, SAMMI, DENISE, TINA, WADE! Great work in the best seat of the house!
And last but not least, GREAT JOB to all of our first-time competitors (13!): Kat, Zoe, Blanca, Diane, Jen T, Jen Z, Edie, Phil, Kenny, Tom, Turtle, Chen, & Rip. It's only going to get better!